A high-ranking U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official will participate Wednesday in a community meeting dealing with chemical security, an issue of particular concern in Louisville, with its heavy industry and rail traffic.

Mathy Stanislaus,who heads the agency?s national Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, is scheduled to speak at a ?Community Forum on Preventing Chemical Disasters in Louisville.? He leads the EPA?s land cleanup, solid waste and emergency response programs.

Organizers said Stanislaus also is scheduled to listen to community concerns. The event is 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yearlings Club, 4309 W. Broadway.

An EPA spokesman said Stanislaus intends to discuss a presidential order on chemical facility safety and security, which President Barack Obama signed last year after a deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Stanislaus also is scheduled to discuss an earlier presidential order on environmental justice.

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CHEMICAL SPILL CLOSES PART OF MORROW ROAD IN SAND SPRINGS

Tags: us_OK, industrial, release, response, nitric_acid

SAND SPRINGS, Okla. - FOX23 News has learned more about the chemical spill at the Brenntag Chemical Plant in Sand Springs.

FOX23 spoke with firemen as they cleared the scene Sunday night around 9:00 p.m.

Firefighters said a neighboring business on Morrow Road called saying they saw a blue cloud coming from one of the chemical plants.

Deputy Fire Chief Justin Hall said that cloud was actually nitric acid reacting with the concrete.

Hall told FOX23 that about 20 gallons of the acid leaked from a valve onto the Morrow Road.

?They shut down the road in both directions to keep people from driving through it,? Hall said.

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CHEMIST REACHES AGREEMENT WITH PROSECUTORS OVER LAB DEATH

Tags: us_CA, laboratory, follow-up, death, illegal

The first academic chemist ever to face criminal charges in a United States lab accident, Patrick Harran, has reached a deferred prosecution agreement with law enforcement officials, likely avoiding a public trial and possible jail time.

The charges against Harran stem from the 2009 death of 23-year-old Sheharbano (?Sheri?) Sangji, who died after a chemical fire while working in Harran?s lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Harran was charged by the Los Angeles district attorney in 2011 with three felony counts of ?willful violation of an occupational health and safety standard causing the death of an employee.? A fourth felony count was added in May 2013.

According to the terms of the agreement, approved today by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli, Harran will pay US$10,000 to the burn unit where Sangji was treated; develop lab safety training tools as part of an organic chemistry class that he will teach for five years to underprivileged high school students; speak to incoming UCLA students about the importance of lab safety; and conduct 800 hours of non-teaching community service at a hospital.

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HAZMAT SITUATION AT STATE BUILDING IN DENVER

Tags: us_CO, public, release, response, other_chemical

DENVER - Denver firefighters responded to a chemical leak at the State Human Services Building, 1575 Sherman St. That's a block north of the State Capitol in downtown Denver.

Mark Watson of Denver Fire said hazmat and decontamination teams were staging and firefighters made sure everyone is out of the building. No one was injured.

The chemical turned out to be A bioside, which is used to treat pipes. Apparently a water leak in the basement tipped the container over in the water, a statement spokeswoman said.

The initial call came in at 9 a.m.

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CAUSE OF FIRE AT GRUNDON IN EWELME NOT YET KNOWN

Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, fire, response, waste

A SAFETY cordon around the Grundon waste plant that was on fire last night has been lifted.

The blaze in an area of hazardous chemical waste broke out at about 7.20pm yesterday and a 200 metre cordon was put up as 60 firefighters from 10 crews were called in.

Fire and police spokesman this morning said it was not yet known what caused the fire, which was contained in a building where recycling is sorted.

It is not yet known what material was on fire, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue service said.

He added: "There is no risk to surrounding areas and the cordon has been lifted."

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FREEDOM BANKRUPTCY RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT CHEMICAL CLEANUP

Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical

The ongoing Freedom Industries bankruptcy could easily turn into a tug-of-war over the cleanup of contamination at the site of the January chemical leak that polluted the drinking water supply that serves 300,000 people in Charleston and the surrounding region, according to experts on bankruptcy and environmental law.

Freedom?s case highlights an inherent conflict between the purpose of bankruptcy proceedings and the goals of some of the nation?s most important environmental laws, experts say. Bankruptcy is all about companies or individuals with financial troubles getting a fresh start. Environmental remediation laws like Superfund, on the other hand, are about holding those same companies or individuals responsible for their past pollution.

?There?s a constant tension,? said Robert Simons, a 30-year veteran of bankruptcy cases who is a partner at the Pittsburgh firm ReedSmith.

In the Freedom case, for example, the state Department of Environmental Protection wants the company?s tank farm ? located just 1.5 miles upstream from the region?s Elk River drinking water intake ? cleaned up. DEP Secretary Randy Huffman has promised the site would be remediated ?until there is a 100-percent certainty that the risk of this stuff getting back in the water has been eliminated, not just minimized.?

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SLIPUPS ENDURE FOR WEST VIRGINIA COMPANY AFTER SPILLING CHEMICALS INTO WATER SUPPLY IN JANUARY

Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical

CHARLESTON, West Virginia ? For the West Virginia company that sullied 300,000 people's drinking water to start the year, slipups like not reading emails and leaving the company chemical headquarters unattended have produced problems for months.

Contractor troubles, miscalculations and missteps have kept state environmental violations rolling in after Freedom Industries' infamous chemical tank leak in January. Other state and federal investigations are still ongoing.

State environmental regulators aren't rushing to slap penalties against the company, however.

TRURO - Police were called to Scotsburn?s Truro facility early on Saturday morning after employees noticed a yellow haze.The building was evacuated and when the Truro Fire Department arrived, they contacted the HAZMAT team. They discovered that a cleaning chemical had leaked from a pipe onto a heater causing the haze.As a precaution, all 23 employees working at the time were taken to Colchester East Hants Health Centre. None of them needed to be admitted.Production has been temporarily halted at the plant.The Department of Labour continues to investigate the situation and production will resume when the department completes a final risk assessment.

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CHEMICAL DEVICE EXPLODES INSIDE PORTA-POTTY, INJURING WOMAN IN ALOHA

Tags: us_OR, public, explosion, injury, bomb

ALOHA, Ore. ? Washington County Sheriff?s deputies are searching for the person who placed two explosive devices at a public park and inside someone's mailbox on Saturday afternoon.

One woman was hurt by the first explosion inside a porta-potty at Arnold Park around 12:30 pm.

The explosions were caused by mixing chemicals together in a container, like a water or soda bottle, according to deputies.

The device was placed inside the toilet area and exploded several minutes later, when the woman happened to be inside, according to officials.

She was at the park attending a high school girls softball tournament along with 200 players and their families from all over the Northwest.

A Los Angeles County judge approved today an agreement between the district attorney?s office and University of California, Los Angeles, chemistry professor Patrick G. Harran to defer prosecution of Harran on four felony charges of violating the state labor code.The charges in the case stem from a 2008 fire in Harran?s lab that led to the death of research assistant Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji.The deal mandates that Harran complete multiple forms of community service and pay a $10,000 fine. The four charges were not dismissed today, and the case against Harran is effectively on hold until his completion of the terms of the agreement, which will last for five years.In a written statement released after the hearing, Sangji?s sister Naveen called the terms of the deal inadequate, calling it ?a slap on the wrist.? Harran had faced up to 4.3 years in prison. In court today, Harran read a statement before the judge approved the agreement, saying he was ?ultimately responsible? for the safety of people working in his lab. ?I have always felt I failed Sheri, and I deeply mourn her loss,? he said.As part of the community service mandated by the agreement, Harran must develop and teach an organic chemistry preparatory course for the South Central Scholars, a volunteer organization that helps prepare Los Angeles inner-city high school students for college and graduate school. The chemistry course will be open to students who recently entered college and are majoring in biology, chemistry, pre-med, or similar disciplines. Harran must teach this course each summer of the five-year term of the agreement.

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ALBION TRAFFIC STOP LEADS TO SUSPECTED METH LAB

Tags: us_PA, public, discovery, response, meth_lab

ALBION -- Borough police stopped a Ford Contour for a traffic violation Thursday night and discovered a suspicious item in the car.

It was a suspected methamphetamine lab of the portable "one-pot" variety, according to Albion Police Chief Dan Ries.

Law enforcement officers in Albion, and other parts of the Erie region, are becoming more familiar with the devices.

Thursday's seizure marked at least the 10th time this year that suspected meth labs were found in buildings and vehicles in the Erie region, and the third time in a little more than a month that Albion police were involved in one of the investigations.

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CHLORINE GAS RELEASE FORCES 3-HOUR SHUTDOWN OF YAKIMA YMCA

Tags: us_WA, public, release, response, chlorine

YAKIMA, Wash. ? The Yakima Family YMCA was shut down for more than three hours after a chlorine gas release forced staff and patrons out of the building Friday morning.

Hazardous materials crews from the Yakima Fire Department, wearing protective clothing and breathing apparatuses, entered the building and removed the water-purification chemicals that caused the gas release. The chemical tablets, used to purify water in the facility?s pool, were placed in 5-gallon plastic pails and sealed. The state Department of Ecology took the chemicals away for disposal.

Mitch Cole, acting deputy fire chief, said the gas was released when a maintenance man mixed two different water purification chemicals for the pool, resulting in a chemical reaction.

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KY. CHEMICAL LEAK

Tags: us_KY, transportation, release, response, other_chemical

A tractor trailer lost part of its load Friday night on Interstate 64 in eastern Kentucky, and spilled more than 600 gallons of a mineral oil.

The accident took place near the Cannonsburg exit in Boyd County shortly after 6 p.m. The semi was carrying 18 300-gallon and 30-gallon containers filled with a mineral oil called Green Flush.

Emergency responders said two of those containers flew off the back of the semi, and landed on the road below the interstate. One of the containers spilled into a creek beside the road, but responders say the oil is non-toxic. However, they did make sure none of the oil spread to any other water systems.

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